In the assembly of displays and partitions much use is made of hooking attachment brackets, secured to a display panel or a partition panel, in combination with special hollow posts to which the panels are secured.
Owing to the need for rigid, reliable assembly, it has been the practice to use hook members secured to the panel means, and adapted for rapid and accurate attachment to division poles, permitting the ready erection of both planar and multi-dimensional displays, panels and partitions.
One such prior art system is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,134,564, Jan. 16, 1979.
In the prior arrangement shown in the above-identified patent, the simple suspension hook members by which the panels are suspended are each inserted into a slot in the wall of a supporting post, the post generally being of circular section.
The adoption of high strength engineering plastic materials such as the polycarbonates, in the die casting of panel attachment plates, has been hindered by undue lateral flexibility of the slender die-cast plate components.
Thus, while possessing fully adequate strength to transfer the weight of the attachment panel to its supporting post, the flexible support plate imparts such lateral flexibility to the system that a row of thus secured panels can be readily caused to sway to an unacceptable extent.
The use of a friction-dependent panel support plate load transfer system wherein a hook portion of a panel support plate is frictionally engaged within a slotted post by the application of reaction force between the post and an edge portion of the plate as an external location, has not been feasible, due to variations in manufacture: in the thickness of the post tube wall, the thickness of paint coatings on the tube outer surface, and the manufacturing tolerances arising in the die casting of the hooked support plate.
These manufacturing variations preclude the ability to provide a reasonably constant reaction load to generate a requisite friction force between the plate hook portion and the interior surface of the post.
In the event that the plate dimensions of known prior systems are so restricted as to ensure adequate interference between the post and the plate contact points, for the sure provision of suitable reaction force loading, in order to achieve an effective range of friction force, then such loading may be excessive, so as to cause undue wear of the plate contact points. Thus, after a number of re-assemblies sufficient wear may occur that the reaction force loading becomes ineffective or even totally lost.